Minstrels

They generally sang their own compositions, and accompanied themselves on the harp; yet some even among the titled minstrels could neither read nor write, and it is related of of one that he was forced to keep a letter from his lady-love in his bosom for ten days until he could find some one to decipher it. ❋ Anne C. Lynch Botta (1853)

Newspapers catering to a genteel readership called minstrels “demons of disorder” who “made night hideous.” ❋ Thaddeus Russell (2010)

Four bedrooms, two en suite, and what estate agents describe as a minstrels 'gallery. ❋ Pawson, Stuart (1999)

And just as the renegade fallen angels became the choir of devils and went to Hell, so the minstrels are the choir of renegade men. ❋ REINHOLD HAMMERSTEIN (1968)

Alfred's especial favorite in the minstrels was the fellow who handled the tambourine. ❋ Ben W. [Illustrator] Warden (N/A)

The more professional class, the so-called minstrels or vagrant performers (descendants of the Norman _jongleurs_), possibly provided the music, which appears to have filled a large and useful part in the plays. ❋ Arnold Wynne (N/A)

"I'll never call the minstrels stupid again," said Watson. ❋ Edward Robins (1902)

Perhaps we could even say that the minstrels were the first "psychotherapists." ❋ Ph.D. Jane G. Goldberg (2011)

II.; however, on reference to the last Vagrant Act of the present king, the word 'minstrels' is omitted; consequently, they are no longer cognizable under that Act of Parliament; and, in addition to that, Mr. Charles Clapp, one of the prisoners, produced his indenture of having served seven years as an apprentice to the profession of a musician to Mr. Clay, who held the same appointment as ❋ John Ashton (N/A)

In Matt. 9: 23, 24, notice is taken of players on the flute, here called "minstrels" (but in R.V. "flute-players"). ❋ M.G. Easton (1897)

All these "minstrels," as we may call them, accompanied their singing by some instrument, generally one of the lute type or the psaltery. ❋ Edward MacDowell (1884)

As the early Vagrant Acts included "minstrels" in their definition of rogues and vagabonds, it is evident that the suitors of the Minstrelsy ❋ Various (1852)

White minstrels were not the only people who knew the secret of slavery. ❋ Thaddeus Russell (2010)

Quattlebaum concluded his comparison of slavery with freedom in virtually the same language used by the minstrels. ❋ Thaddeus Russell (2010)

The minstrels were embowered in greenery as they played waltzes and quadrilles, which were danced with great zest, and the hall rang with good-humored laughter . . . ❋ Thaddeus Russell (2010)

These refugees from citizenship and whiteness sought what Dan Emmett and other early blackface minstrels so desperately wanted. ❋ Thaddeus Russell (2010)

Irish minstrels introduced the jig, the reel, and “the double” to the American public. ❋ Thaddeus Russell (2010)

Montana born leader and supremely gifted storyteller, Colin Meloy has always managed to infuse his songs with the expansiveness of his childhood's big skies and with the textures and the history of traveling minstrels reciting our oral histories and legends. ❋ Marc Ruxin (2011)

Rolling Stones: Great name for itinerant minstrels. ❋ David Weinberger (2011)